Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R-Elsewhere) has gotten plenty of press over his Friday announcement that he’s “formed an exploratory committee to prepare a campaign for the United Staes Senate” in New Hampshire.

But it’s the New York Times coverage that’s caught the hardclicking staff’s eye.

[T]here is something about Mr. Brown that lends itself to humor. He jumped shirtless into ice-cold water this winter in Hampton Beach, N.H., to benefit the Special Olympics, resulting in a picture of the half-naked former senator on the front page of The New Hampshire Union Leader. Years ago, as a model working his way through law school, he posed nude in Cosmopolitan.

He was a topic of conversation at Nashua’s Wild Irish Breakfast political roast on Friday morning, even though he was nowhere in sight. Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, said that Mr. Brown passed on attending the breakfast when he found out he would have to wear a shirt.